Social media applications are currently in widespread use. These applications are typically made available through software systems which are interconnected through the internet and other networks. This allows for robust sharing of user information, content, communications and other data.
In one aspect, these applications permit users to post content such as short notes, videos, photos, text and other information to the social media network. Users may also post links to other content, share previously posted content and supplement existing content. When other users view this collective content, such content is often presented in the form of a newsfeed which typically exists as a scrollable list of content relevant to and/or desired by the viewing user.
The actual presentation of a viewing user's newsfeed may be formed according to a number of characteristics. For example, the newsfeed might be limited to content posted and/or sourced from individuals with which the viewing user shares some form of relationship. Similarly, content in a viewable newsfeed may also be limited to specific subject matter of interest to the viewing user. In some cases, the user may have some control over what is and what is not included in the newsfeed presented to them while in other cases, the makeup of the content may be largely or completely controlled by the application provider instead of the user.
In addition to determining which content is included in a newsfeed and which content is not included, some systems and methods employ decision support in connection with priorities in terms of how the content is presented. For example, some systems may order the content according to the time of posting, possibly showing the most recent posting first with the remaining postings being presented in order of time of posting with the older postings further down the page or requiring page scrolling to view.
While social media applications of today offer an unprecedented opportunity to share and organize information in real time (or near real time) among large numbers of individuals with definable relationships, these applications and methodologies do suffer from some drawbacks.
For example, as a viewing user's network grows via new connections and as that same user's interests expands via indications of interest in new types of subject matter, the amount of content presented to the user can become overwhelming. This may have the unfortunate effect of “burying” content that is of most interest to the user (which he or she may never see) and/or distracting the user with content that is of relatively lesser or no interest to the user. As a result, users may be less inclined to use these applications which, of course, is likely to have detrimental financial effects on those entities that provide these social media applications.